The sheer size of our main salon floor makes for a great place to open up large paper charts, get on our knees and take in the big picture.

Rey and I really like doing it. The tunnel vision goes away, distances seem to make sense and it gives us a sense of security. All this just from opening up a 3X4' sheet of paper on the floor. We invest a lot of money in paper charts. Every time I buy more I think I'm wasting my money because they cost so much but,,, I'll buy them every time.

You're right on the novice thing. We were in the Exumas 1 month after leaving Florida and Rey wanted to go to Ocean Cabin for dinner. This meant that we had to go out one cut and back in another. I had never been through a cut before and didn't know what to expect. The weather wasn't all that bad, we knew there was a bit of a swell running outside and the wind was blowing a good bit but we decided to get some dinner. We raised anchor and started motoring out through Galliot Cut as the tide was going out. As we were being sucked out we both looked ahead and said "Oh Shit" as we stared at a 10' standing wave. About 15 seconds later our boat disappeared with 4' of blue water over the stainless. Amazing! The boat just disappeared as she plowed into the standing wave. The water got about 6" up the dodger when it parted and filled the cockpit. The boat rolled a bit and the water went out that side door we have.

It was just amazing.

Funniest part was that after getting through Rey looked behind and there was our AB tagging along behind us half full of water.

Not knowing what effect conditions like that can have on a boat is not a good thing.

We won't do that again.